Tech

An intelligence so capable it can perceive every cause and effect. The promise of eternal life. The dawn of a new age in which suffering will be eliminated, every need will be met and the individual will find fulfillment by subordinating himself to something far greater than himself.

These are the promises of most great faiths. The capacity to understand and predict everything that could possibly occur is a characteristic most would ascribe to God.

But today, this rhetoric surrounds an ostensibly scientific and secular movement. Transhumanism, the attempt to overcome the body’s limitations through technology, and the hunt for artificial intelligence are promoted with evangelistic language.

Did you know that earlier this spring, many U.S. tech megacompanies including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Microsoft all signed a “code of conduct” pledge promising the European Union they would work with an unelected EU commission to “sanction” and “criminalize” “individual perpetrators” of “hate speech” online.

In addition, these companies have signed up to “promote independent counter-narratives” favored by the EU. (Sounds like a “you can only spread our propaganda, not anyone else’s” attitude, doesn’t it?)

A whole host of reasons are being given to justify the increased surveillance and data mining of social media and the wider Internet itself: terrorism, suicide prevention, precrime detection of violence and other illegal acts, and even teenage alcohol abuse.

This is being done at the federal level most egregiously with the declaration that the feds have now been given the green light to hack millions of private devices with only a single warrant.